The present invention relates to a control device for an elevator installation having a plurality of cars serving multiple floors simultaneously, and a method for controlling such an elevator installation.
An elevator installation having double cars includes a control that permits the upper as well as the lower cars to be used at a main floor for travel to both even-numbered and odd-numbered floors is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,883.
All modern controls for elevator installations with multiple cars, for example double cars (double-deckers), strive for minimization of the number of stops and thus also the cycle or travel time. In the case of double-decker controls, the embarking and disembarking persons at two adjacent floors can be served, as far as possible, simultaneously. In order to fulfil this task, in the case of buildings equipped with multiple car elevators, for example double-decker elevators, two zones have to be separately considered:
Zone a) The main stopping point, i.e. usually the building entrance (lobby). The main stopping point comprises in correspondence with the car deck number of the multiple cars at least two, usually the two lowermost, stopping point floors. The main stops of the main stopping point (lobby) are usually connected by escalators. There thousands of passengers flow into and out of the building on a daily basis. For the elevator control the most important feature here is the same elevator position at the stop: the lowermost deck stops at the lowermost main stop floor of the main stopping point, thus as a rule the lobby.
Zone b) The other floors, thus, for example, the upper floors above the main stopping point. There the multiple car elevators, for example double-decker elevators, are so controlled in the case of between-floor traffic with advantage that they simultaneously serve those two adjacent floors where passengers embark or disembark. The passenger waiting on such a floor accordingly cannot select the deck by which he or she is conveyed.
Known control algorithms—see, for example, the algorithm shown in EP 1 193 207—offer solutions for the zone b) optimized to a greater or lesser extent. The proposed invention fully optimizes the control for journeys from the zone a).
For “filling” of the building in good time it is important that the elevators starting from the main stopping point avoid “overlapping” stops (for example, floors 13/14 and then floors 14/15). This problem was previously solved (see, for example, EP 0 301 178) in such a manner that on the lower main stopping floor only the passengers with uneven floor destinations embark and in the upper floor those with destinations to even floors embark. This regulation applied not only for classical two-button controls, but also for new destination call controls.
Other solution possibilities were also proposed. Thus, in EP 0 624 540 a feasible elevator allocation by “preliminary information ” from the passenger is proposed. On entry into the elevators the passenger selects one of the channels, wherein each channel is associated with a floor zone. The individual zones here consist of several floors.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,883 mentioned above describes another solution for a destination call control. An elevator installation comprising a double-deck elevator group is selectably subdivided so that approximately half the elevators belong to the subgroup even/uneven and the second subgroup to uneven/even. The multiple cars are thus controlled in dependence on the divisibility of the number of the destination floor by the number of car decks per multiple car. Thus, every passenger at the two lobby floors should be spared use of the escalator, because an elevator can always be allocated to him or her independently of the evenness or unevenness of the destination floor. The individual multiple cars are, however, in that case always controlled with the so-called “restricted service”, i.e. one of the car decks always stops at an even-numbered floor and the other at an uneven-numbered floor. The allocation of the passenger by his determined travel call, indicated by his or her destination call, to a car deck actually serving the even floors or to a car deck actually serving the uneven floors is also carried out in corresponding manner.
The known solutions have a few disadvantages—the passenger has to at least know what even and uneven mean or then in which zone his or her destination floor is located. In the case of the zone channels a regular building user cannot develop a behavioral stereotype with the same elevator group, because possibly different channels have to be used for different destinations. In addition, the apparently elegant solution of subdivision of the elevator group into even/uneven and uneven/even subgroups conceals the disadvantage that the waiting times for some passengers are significantly increased.
The greatest problem arises when the floor designations in the building do not correspond with the numbering of the possible stops of the elevators. In such a case the decision of the passenger with regard to the evenness/unevenness of his or her destination floor (generally divisibility of the destination floor number by the car deck number) does not correspond with that which the control considers on the basis of the number of possible stopping point pairs (stopping point triples in the case of triple cars, etc.). This problem can also arise as soon as the elevator group has blind zones or express zones (i.e. floors which are not served). Sometimes even several blind zones of different length are present and thus the selection of the most favorable stopping point pairs with respect to even/uneven or uneven/even can change several times.
The object of the present invention is to improve a control device, an elevator installation, and a building in such a manner that the building filling takes place more quickly with elevator passengers starting from the main stopping point.